Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed what he wants to happen in order for there to be a cease-fire and eventual peace deal with neighboring Ukraine, but in doing so he has made it clear he’s not really interested in peace at all.
In a Thursday video call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Putin said that he would pull his troops back under several conditions to include a pledge that Ukraine would remain neutral and never join NATO (which wasn’t going to happen anyway), the BBC reported.
Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman and chief adviser for Erdogan, said that the Kremlin is also calling on Ukraine to essentially disarm itself in order to ‘mitigate threats’ to Russia in the future, in addition to adding laws that protect the Russian language in Ukraine. Putin also wants a pledge of “Denazification” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The report also said that Putin wants a face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy to drive home his demands, to which the Ukrainian president has previously stated he is not entirely opposed. In addition, Kalin said, there are other conditions that Putin is demanding that the Turkish adviser did not divulge though he said he thinks they will involve recognizing territories that have broken from Ukraine in the eastern Russia-centric Donbas region.
The BBC also reported that it is “assumed” Putin will demand that Ukraine give up some territory in the east and also formally recognize that Crimea, which Putin illegally annexed during the Obama regime in 2014, is now a part of Russia.
But it’s not at all clear that Putin is serious, as his forces continue to pound Ukrainian cities and some residential areas.
“I have not seen any meaningful efforts by #Russia” to bring an end to the war through diplomacy, says Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a tweet from Voice of America correspondent Steve Herman. “I don’t see signs right now Putin is prepared to stop.”
“I have not seen any meaningful efforts by #Russia” to bring an end to the war through diplomacy, says @SecBlinken. “I don’t see signs right now Putin is prepared to stop.”
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 17, 2022
“This could horrifically go on for some time” but eventually “Ukraine will still be there” and Putin will not, Blinken added, according to Herman.
“This could horrifically go on for some time” but eventually “Ukraine will still be there” and Putin will not, says @SecBlinken.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 17, 2022
Also, as Fox News reported, the Ukrainian leader, who is keeping track of these war crimes, notes that his people won’t soon forget the brutality inflicted on civilians by Putin’s forces.
Russia’s “terror” that has been unleashed on the city of Mariupol, for instance, will be “remembered for centuries to come,” Zelenskyy said.
The network added on Sunday:
Russian President Vladimir Putin is becoming a “pariah,” an outcast, before the world stage amid his ongoing invasion of Ukraine, foreign policy experts say.
While experts believe it’s too soon to determine whether Putin will be successful in his attempts to take control of Ukraine — acknowledging that there will likely be some form of a partial victory — it is clear that the Russian dictator has done irreversible damage to his own country with the invasion.
“I think Putin’s future is grim. I think, at home, he will be under the constant threat of opposition — possibly of a coup, some kind of power grab — to remove him because even his closest allies are now seeing the problem,” Robert English, a professor of Central European Studies at the University of Southern California, told the network.
“And if they gain less by staying loyal than they would if he’s replaced, it’s just a matter of how to do it,” he added.
